Comments on: Steampunk Week – Book Review: The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:03:57 +0000

I just finished it too and was very bored throughout. I kept waiting for something exciting to happen and nothing did. I don’t need everything wrapped up but at least provide some climax to the novel. I’m not a literary review person but I was disappointed with this to say the least.

I bought it 4 years ago and started it then but after 100 pages had to put it down b/c I just couldn’t get into it. B/c I commute now I have hours on the train so I could read it fairly quick. Even then it was hard.

That said, I liked the universe that they created and would like to read more stories in that setting.

By: Casey

Casey — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:02:49 +0000

Here’s more info, with diagrams, describing the several different designs of fluidic flip-flops and amplifiers. The journalist claims that in 1967, you could purchase a fluidics bread-board kit from Corning Glass Works.
http://books.google.com/books?id=jSEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA197&ots=Qt5_MoGh91&dq=aerodynamic%20amplifier&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=aerodynamic%20amplifier&f=true

By: Casey

Casey — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:37:24 +0000

Thanks for mentioning Jacquard and the use of punched cards for data storage.

I must ask, again making reference to WikiPedia, has anyone considered fluidic computing as a plausible computing platform for the Victorian age? I first read of it back in the 1960s, as a possible means of building radiation proof computers, for the cold war. There were articles in Scientific American and Popular Science. Then, in engineering school, one professor harped on fluidic computers as a lost opportunity, bigger than Babbage’s analytical engine. According to the prof, if fluidics had been developed as soon as practical, we could have had programmable, general purpose digital computers as early as 1920, or possibly earlier. Data storage on punched cards had been around for decades, but the innovation of fluidic logic would make possible general purpose CPUs, constructed from arrays of fluidic flip flops and fast fluidic memory.

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluidics

Do you think it possible? Another case of failure of strategic vision? Might we ask, what technology is available nowadays, but not fully appreciated?

By: Paul Magrs

Paul Magrs — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:58:37 +0000

I’ve just written about this excellent review on my blog. I really enjoyed Steampunk week. It’s helping me orient myself in this nebulous genre…

best
paul
http://www.paulmagrs.com

By: Erika (Jawas Read, Too)

Erika (Jawas Read, Too) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:53:44 +0000

I want to read this now, if only to share in the experience. I know very little about the history you mentioned; I’ll probably be very confused…

By: Estara

Estara — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:07:01 +0000

Because it fits this book review subject so well and because Charles Babbage can be full of action (and in case readers missed the link on the steampunk discussion post): Let me link all of you again to Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace do Victorian Steampunk action webcomic:2D Goggles

By: TDF Pamela

TDF Pamela — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:37:32 +0000

Great review. Gibson is definitely a tough read, and though I haven’t gotten to any of the Sterling on my bookcase yet, I’m guessing he’s the same. Gibson has the habit of dropping you into his worlds and leaving you to figure things out as you go along, and while that’s sometimes frustrating, I actually find that I appreciate the lack of infodumps and background information. I’m hoping he does it because he wants the reader to think hard and pay attention and not just because he’s lazy, lol. China Miéville does the same sort of thing.

One of these days, I’ll have to get around to reading this book. I’ll just be sure to keep Wikipedia close at hand.

By: Moonsanity

Moonsanity — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:18:31 +0000

This is the type of book I would need to build up to before reading it. I know this will seem off topic, but I really do have a point. I’ve read almost all of Tom Clancy’s earlier books when HE was still writing them. My dad was a fan, and gave them to me. I love his characters and the action. The military tech stuff-not so much. I would “skim” those parts to get to the good stuff. I think I would end up doing this with The Difference Engine. OR I would end up reading it more like a text book-learning along the way, and like you, end up online wanting to understand it better. Is this a bad thing? No, I guess not, because when we stop learning, we stop living. Does this make sense?

By: Neil Ford

Neil Ford — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:13:00 +0000

You should definitely read some of Gibson’s other books. A personal favourite is Pattern Recognition, which is more thriller than speculative fiction. Most people would say read Neuromancer, one of the seminal cyberpunk books.

With regards to The Difference Engine, I started reading it last year but haven’t finished it yet. Like you, I’ve found it slow going and haven’t been enthused to finish it quickly. Interesting to seem I’m not alone.

- Neil.

By: Ana

Ana — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:45:06 +0000

Nope, “fun” is most certainly not a word I would use to describe this book.